144 EXAMINATION of an HISTORICAL HTPOTHESIS 



are impartially weighed, I am much deceived, indeed, if any 

 perfon competent to judge of this fpecies of evidence; will he- 

 fitate to decide that the latter is infinitely preponderating. 



The arguments by which the Abbe de Sade has endeavour- 

 ed to invalidate the pofitive evidence contained in the writings 

 of Petrarch, that Laura was born, lived and died in an ob- 

 fcure retreat in the country, are not undeferving of attention ; as 

 they are ftrong examples of that laboured fophiftry, which is 

 ufually employed when one endeavours to fupport a weak or 

 falfe hypothefis. 



Avignon, fays the Abbe, though a city of fome celebrity, 

 was far inferior in fplendour to many of the Italian cities ; and 

 the mind of Petrarch, being filled with the idea of their mag- 

 nificence, might not unnaturally have termed the former picciol 

 borgo. Unfortunately, Petrarch at this time knew nothing 

 of the fplendid cities of Italy, but by defcription, He was born 

 at Arezzo, an inconfiderable town in the Florentine territory j 

 and he was no more than {even years of age, when he, together 

 with his whole family, removed to Avignon. This city, there- 

 fore, was at any rate the moft fplendid he had ever feen ; unlefs 

 perhaps he had had a tranfient glimpfe of Florence on his jour- 

 ney. It could, indeed, be only a diftant profpedl ; for his father 

 was then in a ftate of banifhment from that capital, and durft 

 not enter it. We may judge, then, with what propriety Pe- 

 trarch could have given the epithet of picciol borgo to Avig- 

 non, then the feat of the Papal refidence, the perpetual refort of 

 the moft fplendid embaffies from all the fovereigns of Europe j 

 and rendered illuflrious, as the Abbe de Sade himfelf informs 

 us, by frequent vifits of the moft celebrated princes, many of 

 whom had actually built palaces there * ; a city, too, where, as 



the 



* " Les Princes, non contents d'envoyer des Ambafladeurs au Pape dans les moin- 

 dres occafions, ne dedaignoient pas d'aller fouvent en perfonne a Avignon, trailer 



avec 



